They cut the tent free of the wall and moved to the hatch, too tired now to speak. Outside, the sunstone trap seemed to have held on to most of the spillage. They took off their jetpacks and slipped them around the edge of the tarp to leave their bodies narrower, then followed them into the passage.

Together, they untied the tarp from the handholds while keeping the rim against the outer wall of the chamber. Then they brought the rim together and knotted it tight, leaving the spilt sunstone inside a large, closed sack. Tarquinia slammed the reset lever on the feed for the decomposing agent.

‘That’s the hard part done,’ she said.

‘What?’ Ramiro was already picturing himself asleep.

She gestured towards the access shaft that ran between her cabin and the cooling chamber. The cabins had airtight doors, but there was still a gaping hole where this shaft met the outer hull.

‘Smaller, no sunstone,’ Tarquinia stressed. ‘We’ll be done in half a bell.’

When the shaft had been sealed, Ramiro checked in on Agata and Azelio while Tarquinia went to restart the ventilation system.

‘He’s sleeping,’ Agata said. ‘All the wounds look stable now.’

‘That’s a relief.’ Ramiro squeezed her shoulder. ‘Thanks for keeping your head, before.’

‘What do you mean?’ Agata sounded genuinely confused; she wasn’t being modest.

‘When you went after Tarquinia,’ he said. ‘I was a wreck – I didn’t know what I was doing.’

‘Really?’ Agata buzzed. ‘It’s lucky I didn’t notice, or it might have been contagious.’

Ramiro said, ‘We’ll have pressure soon. Do you want to sleep in here?’

‘If that’s all right.’

‘Tarquinia’s going to set the temperature low enough that we won’t need beds, so just . . . make yourself comfortable any way you can.’

‘Thank you.’

He left her, and dragged himself to the front cabin. Tarquinia was at the main console.

‘Any problems?’ he asked.

She swivelled around to face him. ‘The cooling chamber’s up to full operating pressure, and we’ll be back to normal everywhere in four or five chimes.’

‘Back to normal.’ That sounded surreal.

Tarquinia said, ‘We should rest for a few days before we try to repair the cabins.’

‘At least. Agata’s going to stay with Azelio.’

‘Right. You take her cabin, then; I’ll be on watch.’

‘You need to rest, too.’

Tarquinia spread her arms, taking in the whole of the Surveyor: they could hardly leave it unmonitored in this delicate transitional state. ‘You were up before this whole thing started,’ she said. ‘Sleep for four bells, then I’ll come and wake you.’